Kung Fu Flash

Kung Fu Flash

I got the Kung Fu Flash cartridge for the Commodore 64, even if I already have the 1541Ultimate II and a couple of other solutions. (SD2IEC, IRQHack64)

Kung Fu Flash has been already around for many years, but I'm not familiar with it. It can run PRGs directly, mount and load disk images and cartridge images from a microSD card.

It's nice that whatever is run, is also booted after resetting or after shutting down the computer. (Except files loaded from inside mounted disk images). So either you can really focus on that one game, or use the C64 in a "kiosk" capacity, easily re-starting the intended software. Sure, other carts can be rigged to do these things but here it is very simple and effective.

Sorry, my setup wasn't the best possible

A minor inconvenience is that if you again want to reset to BASIC, this needs an additional step. A few "d'oh, I forgot it boots to that game!" moments are to be expected.

Cart images like the massive 500K Prince of Persia can be flashed with this system, any old 8K or 16K cartridge ought to work too. The cart has no REU memory expansion, so REU-reliant projects like the Sonic the Hedgehog conversion won't be possible.

Mounting D64 disk images has limited uses as anything containing non-standard files probably won't run (scene demos). The cart doesn't connect to the IEC as the Ultimate does, so I suppose it relies on its own driver. Anything that does load, loads extremely fast.

Size comparison with the Ultimate II

The cart is tiny, smaller than the most common cart size back in the day. This came in a 3D printed case but it looks ok and feels sturdy enough. The size can be considered as a plus.

The file list is navigated almost the same way as in Ultimate. In fact I tried the card from my Ultimate and it's all fine, including the folders. A minus point for not sorting the files alphabetically, at least I couldn't see any related setting. This isn't a huge problem, and the search function is pretty good.

There's a C64-PC connection, but it doesn't sound it would work the way I want, so trying that will have to wait.

Can't deny the Ultimate is still the most comprehensive cart, but Kung Fu Flash looks like it does enough and for some the simplicity might even be a bonus. It's cheaper of the two by far.

https://github.com/KimJorgensen/KungFuFlash